Of the pre-Symphony of the Night games in the Castlevania franchise, there are quite a few good ones to choose from. But, for me, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was one of my favorites. It made branching paths cool long before Dracula X did, and it introduced the idea of playing as multiple characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. So, given my love for that game, I really enjoyed playing Castlevania: Curse of Darkness all the way through for the first time back in 2010.

Curse of Darkness is a direct sequel to the events of CV3, set three years later in 1479. Dracula has been defeated and sealed away, but his magic looms on in the land of Valachia (Wallachia) in the form of “Dracula’s Curse.” In this new adventure, we take control of Hector, a former devil forgemaster once employed by Dracula who betrayed him and fled his homeland in 1476. Now, he’s returned to get his revenge on Isaac, a former partner who brought about the death of his beloved wife, only now to get drawn into Isaac’s plans for restoring Dracula and wreaking havoc in Europe once more.

The game is really cool, taking players on an adventure through Valachia, to all sorts of locales, and having the quest draw to a close finally at Castlevania, Dracula’s castle.

I had a really cool personal intro set up for this, but since I live-streamed the video, and it was flagged for copyright reasons, I can’t edit anything into it, so it has to exist in its raw format. Nonetheless, I think for one of my first streams where I’m getting back into the whole live-streaming thing (and using YouTube Gaming), it turned out well. Plus, YTG has allowed me to push 1080p60 content live to viewers, and even crazy resolutions like 3440×1440 are possible via live stream.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this two-hour video! It fits great with the Halloween season!